


who am I even sad for?

by vampirepotter



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Bonding, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Memory Alteration, Not-Them - Freeform, Spoilers for the magnus archives season 2, kind of, set early season 3 I think, sorry if my tense is all over the place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:55:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28730040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampirepotter/pseuds/vampirepotter
Summary: Neither of them would know how to talk about it. But it needed to happen at some point-...no, that's not right. They could easily have ignored it. But that's the reason they got stuck working in the archives in the first place: they were desperate to know. They needed to talk about Sasha James.
Relationships: (IMPLIED), Melanie King & Tim Stoker, Sasha James/Tim Stoker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	who am I even sad for?

Tim would still be struggling to mourn Sasha when Melanie started working at the archives. Melanie King, a complete stranger, an asshole, and the only person who really remembered Sasha. And Sasha wasn’t even important to her. Not like she was to Tim.

So of course Tim would have animosity towards her at first, because why should she get to remember Sasha when he knew her so well?  
Their first interation was fairly rocky, to put it mildly. A few bitter words exchanged for no real reason until suddenly Tim let the act slip, just a bit, to ask about the two Sashas. She had seemed taken aback and didn't give a response. Maybe she'd forgotten too? Maybe he was pathetoc for bringing it up. But it still ate away at him.

At this point it’d be just Melanie, Tim, Jon, and Martin working in the archives. However, with Jon running from the law or being kidnapped or something and Martin being pretty spaced out as a result, Tim and Melanie would end up being alone together on late shifts fairly often. Those nights would be very quiet. Almost painfully quiet. Once Tim would suggest turning on some music but the piercing stare Melanie would give him when he was scrolling through his playlists would make him so nervous he'd give up. Their work nights would return to being quiet. 

One day Tim finds an old photo booth strip of him and Sasha from back when they’d go to a local arcade on their day off. It was laying under a stack of old papers that had been piling up on his kitchen table. He just... glares at it, shoves it in his pocket, and goes to work.

Later, when it’s just him and Melanie, the uncomfortable silence they’re working in is unbearable. And then suddenly he just can’t take it anymore, he takes the photo strip out of his pocket and hands it to her frantically, with desperation in his voice he asks,  
“Is this her?”  
And Melanie would just look at him and say, matter of factly, “yes.”  
And Tim would finally, finally let a few tears fall. Because up until now he had been mourning someone he didn’t even know. A fake. But this was really her.

He’d take the photos back and just stare at them before going to sit down in the corner of the file room where they’d been sorting. He wouldn’t take his eyes off her face the whole time he was walking over, sitting down. Just trying to absorb everything, trying to remember, damn it.  
And then Melanie would sit down next to him. And he’d let out a shaky breath before asking,  
“What was she like?”

And they’d sit like that for hours, long past closing time, Melanie describing Sasha’s light voice and her warm eyes and the way she walked and the way she dressed. Only small things from small interactions, but Tim cherished every adjective.  
And Tim would just sit there, taking it in, sometimes commenting that he remembered a detail she mentioned, always lying.  
The two would just share this moment under the fluorescent lights, their filing abandoned, with tear stained cheeks (both of them). And then they’d lock up and go their separate ways home.

They wouldn’t mention it again, but there wouldn’t be any resentment between them anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> THE TENSE IS ALL OVER THE PLACE I KNOW PLEASE TRY TO IGNORE IT I'M TOO TIRED AND DUMB TO FIX IT!!  
> We didn't get nearly enough Tim and Melanie interaction in canon.  
> The title is from I think the only interaction they have at all? I'll put that conversation here because it's HEARTBREAKING
> 
> "TIM: Wait. Tell me about the two Sashas.
> 
> MELANIE: Oh? What?
> 
> TIM: Martin said you were rambling about there being two Sashas.
> 
> MELANIE: Look, I don’t, I don’t know, I… um, well, the… the first time I came to give a statement, there was a young woman working here named Sasha, er, and then when I, when I came in again there was a different woman working here. And everyone called her Sasha as well, which… I didn’t think it was too strange. I mean, i-i-it’s a common name, but everyone kept saying they were the same person and, and they weren’t. At all! John kept saying there’d only ever been one Sasha working there, but they were totally different. And everyone’s been giving me really strange looks whenever I talk about it.
> 
> TIM: …What did she look like?
> 
> MELANIE: What? Sorry?
> 
> TIM: The first Sasha. What… What was she like?
> 
> MELANIE: Uh, she was… um…  
> I don’t, er… maybe I’m… I’m getting it wrong. I just… okay, I can’t, er –
> 
> TIM: No. I… think I understand.
> 
> MELANIE:Well, can you explain?
> 
> TIM: …Who am I even sad for?
> 
> MELANIE: I… I’m, I’m sorry… I don’t, er…
> 
> TIM: Um… I’m, I’m going to lie down. Um. Can you record this for me?"
> 
> DEVASTATING!! But I needed more closure once Melanie had figured out what happened! Anyway hope you enjoyed my little drabble, kudos are great but I'd love a comment more!


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